Why the attack on Iraq was, and remains, totally wrong

That which is a crime in the conceptual stage remains a crime in the execution stage. The war on Iraq was a violation of international law, regardless of its "success." I have little respect for Henry Kissinger, but I agree with him that the attack "challenges the international system established by the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia," the basis for modern rules governing interaction between states. I agree, too, with the Pope, who declared the war both "unjust" and "illegal." The governments of key US allies opposed the aggression conducted by the Anglo-American invading forces, ludicrously termed "the Coalition forces." There simply was and is precious little support on the planet for this project, obscenely sold as "Operation Iraqi Freedom." Nor should there be.

It should be clear to anyone paying attention that a cabal in the Bush administration, headed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, abetted by ideologist Richard Perle, used Sept. 11 to implement plans they had articulated in position papers years before. It involves "regime change" throughout Southwest Asia. It is not just about oil, but about control of oil and other resources, and about further advantaging the sole superpower vis-? -vis any potential future rivals in what they call the "New American Century."

But you can't sell the American people an imperialist war by describing it in such straightforward terms. Thus we were told that war with Iraq was necessary because Saddam was involved with al-Qaeda. Or with the anthrax letters, or al-Ansar. All bull***t. The argument they finally chose, from their disinformation arsenal, was weapons of mass destruction. We in America were threatened with attack, so we had to go in there and take Saddam out.

Since it is in their script, I think it likely they will produce some evidence to validate their war. (Rumsfeld is already predicting that they will find WMDs, which they are obviously desperately trying to do, but that "certain types of people" will claim "inaccurately, that it was planted.") Meanwhile Bush has asked the UN to lift the sanctions originally imposed on Iraq at US insistence to force the elimination of such weapons. France's Chirac, among others, reply (logically) that to lift the sanctions, we must have proof there are no WMDs. They say, "You went to war to destroy what you called Saddam's threatening arsenal; now show us those weapons, and we'll lift the sanctions." The UN is asking that neutral arms inspectors return to Iraq. The US is saying, "No, trust us, we'll handle it." We'll see.

Meanwhile, what are the fruits of this war? Up to 1904 civilian deaths at last count, and thousands of Iraqi soldiers killed defending their country. 157 dead among the invaders, mostly kids just doing what they were told and garnering no glory in their deaths. Disorder throughout Iraq. Rage at the US effort to impose its satraps hauled out of exile to constitute an interim government. Tens of thousands demonstrating in Baghdad, saying "No to occupation. No Bush, no Saddam," and telling the troops to go home. (One must sympathize with those college-age GIs, told by their commanders that they are liberators, then confronted with reality, just as their forebears were in Vietnam. Some will come home very messed up.)

While occupying troops diligently guarded Oil Ministry offices in Baghdad, thugs sacked the Museum of National Antiquities and burned down the National Library, containing thousand-year old copies of the Quran. This is a heartbreaking loss, an assault on Iraqi identity. It happened on the occupiers' watch, is their responsibility, and will inevitably generate more hatred towards them.

The order has now gone out that the troops must not display the US flag in Iraq. It has generated such indignation that US officers have hurriedly tucked it away. Sure, there were those brief images of Iraqi kids waving little US flags, the kind you might buy at CVS. (Where in Baghdad does one go to purchase a little plastic American flag?) And that staged toppling of the Saddam statue in that near-empty Baghdad square. Pure Hollywood. Looks to me as though the locals are in fact sullen and uncooperative.

Some who were involved in the antiwar movement as the Iraq attack was being planned eventually changed their minds and decided that, now that the war was on, "we" should just hope for a quick end to it and the establishment of "democracy" in Iraq. I disagree. I don't think the likes of Zalmay Khalilzad, who orchestrated the farcical Loya Jirga in Afghanistan, can facilitate the empowerment of the Iraqi people, nor do I think, in principle, that global oppressors can be liberators. Think of the recent historical context. The US set up the vicious Shah in Iran; he was toppled in the most genuine mass-based revolution ever to occur in an Islamic country. The US didn't like that. To punish Iran for its revolution, it supported the Saddam regime in its attack on Iran in the 1980s. Meanwhile in Afghanistan the CIA assembled tens of thousands of Islamist militants to confront the Soviet-backed secular Afghan regime, especially backing Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (whom they're now trying to assassinate). The US intervention in Afghanistan produced al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Does this record suggest that the current US role in Iraq will lead to anything positive?

Looks to me like the Iraqis want the US out immediately. There is zero support for Ahmad Chalabi, the Defense Department's candidate for puppet ruler under indictment in Jordan for embezzlement. Meanwhile, on the Arab street from Rabat to Beirut, people are sick with fear about a US attack on Syria. Justification for such another unjustified attack is already being prepared, systematically. Such are the results of "Operation Iraqi Freedom."

Let us assume that resistance to the occupation continues in Iraq, while the cabal plots its next moves. Shouldn't good people in this country unite with that resistance, and redouble efforts to oppose the cabal's agenda, which includes not just interminable war abroad, but war on the Bill of Rights here at home?

Gary P. Leupp is an Associate Professor of History.